Roquebillière and Breil-sur-Roya
Suddenly, a piece of hedge slowly collapses and falls into the river below.
Jennifer, who is working to save what can still be saved in her chalet, much of which has already been washed away, has understood.
Soon all the land will be thrown into the current, eaten away by the waters of the river which continue their work of undermining.
You have to act quickly and the young woman, with a few friends, runs to collect her last personal belongings from the house.
"I lost everything, thirty years of my life, but at least we are alive"
, consoles the EDF agent housed here by her employer, facing the hydroelectric power station, also submerged, in the small village of Roquebillière , in the Vésubie valley.
In the aftermath of the floods which hit the Alpes-Maritimes and severely affected, in addition to Vésubie, the neighboring valleys of Tinée and Roya, the inhabitants expressed their dismay.
Jennifer's neighbor, Jean-Louis Mazella, 62, former director of this power plant, has had better luck, but is already worried about the future.
"The dike has disappeared and today we are at the mercy of another flood which could damage the rest of the houses"
, he is alarmed.
Beside, a little girl of the family, who had held back her emotion until then, bursts into tears, while below the raging river still rumbles.
Read also:
Bad weather in the Alpes-Maritimes: two dead and still many missing
Further on, Patrick Theus, 54, technical operations manager, is busy, armed with a pickaxe, to restore a small stream in his bed.
With his face defaced, he recalls the evening of the day before, when his neighbors, an elderly couple, were swept away by the waves at the same time as their house:
“There was the alarm, I went down to see, we had already visited them three times, but after that it was too late because they did not want to evacuate.
The firefighters didn't have enough long ropes, and even us, with our ropes, couldn't get them out.
The house was suddenly washed away. ”
"Still unable to quantify the human toll"
With Saint-Martin-Vésubie, located further upstream, Roquebillière is one of the localities most affected by the disaster.
On the bridge that leads to the old village, the inhabitants, Saturday, could not believe their eyes.
“The church is 1,000 years old, and look where the water has come in, right down to the edge of the foundation!
The war memorial, he's gone, and the old bridge too, ”
laments Marcel Eusebi, 82 years old.
"We had never seen that, it is the catastrophe of the century, and listen carefully to what I am telling you, these are the beginnings of all that will happen in the twenty or thirty years to come"
, prophesies the old man .
At the Templiers campsite, a stone's throw from the thousand-year-old church, the director Arnaud Leclercq, 45, tells how water has drowned all its facilities.
"The dike did not move a millimeter, but the old bridge, falling into the river, diverted the water which arrived in the street and then descended to my campsite"
, he says, in quantifying the damage at 1.3 million euros.
“The bungalows, there are two that left for Nice and the others are still on the campsite walking around.
I saved nothing, except the dwelling house and my family, which is the main thing, ”
smiles the forty-
something
, his arms loaded with bottles of mineral water that the staff distribute to the population, totally deprived of water. and electricity since the flood.
The situation is extremely serious, we are still not able to quantify the human toll, the material damage is unimaginable, the population lacks everything
Sébastien Olharan, mayor of Breil-sur-Roya
Same spectacle of desolation on Sunday in the Roya valley, near the Italian border.
The village of Breil-sur-Roya, which became accessible again in the morning thanks to the clearing of a mountain road, was drowned under the waters of the Roya river, which flows into the Mediterranean, on the Italian side, at Ventimiglia.
In the central square, car roofs are flush with a thick layer of mud.
Yet located several meters above the river bed, Cristian Mustata's pizzeria was flooded.
“All the refrigerators are damaged, and also the oven that I had just bought,”
laments the 29-year-old Romanian.
Lydie Valsecchi, a neighbor, pokes her head in search of a soda.
"It was awful, like a tornado, and then the Roya overflowed, we could only see the roofs of the houses opposite, and today the village is unrecognizable"
, she says.
Sébastien Olharan, the mayor of Breil-sur-Roya, 27, is now calling for an
“airlift”
for his valley.
"The situation is extremely serious, we are still not able to quantify the human toll, the material damage is unimaginable, the population lacks everything, water, food, electricity, fuel, network telephone.
We are cut off from the world!
We are fortunate to have a very large number of civil security forces but they cannot reach the other villages at the top of the valley, ”
the elected official said.
According to him, in Breil-sur-Roya alone,
"there are undoubtedly more than a dozen missing"
.
Éric Ciotti, member of Nice and departmental councilor of the canton of Saint-Martin-Vésubie where he is from, expresses his
"astonishment"
.
"The situation is apocalyptic, it is a total disaster"
, comments the elected LR.
In his village, firefighters were busy Sunday recovering the coffins, some open, in the devastated cemetery.
"A victim has just been found in his car, which brings the human toll for Vésubie to eight potential victims, including the two firefighters taken to La Bollène-Vésubie, the two elderly people from Roquebillière and three other serious suspicions"
, he lists.
On the material side,
"the road which leads from Saint-Martin to Boréon is almost destroyed, as is the one which connects Breil to Tende, with very many structures"
.
According to him, the bill, in public equipment alone, could exceed one billion euros.
The deputy calls for a reinforcement of the air means, in particular for the isolated villages of Roya like Saorge, Tende, Fontan or La Brigue.
The only glimmer of hope, access for emergency vehicles was restored, Sunday evening, for Saint-Martin-Vésubie.
